I tell you what, having a good idea and writing a book is the easiest part. Selling the book is far more difficult. In particular when you are not a good sales person yourself.

Having had a publishing house some twenty odd years ago, I thought okay, I don’t need a publisher, I can do this job myself. I can find a proof-reader that’s all I need. The design and organising the printer is easy for me. And then, I will go and find somebody who does the warehousing and distribution. I really wanted to out-source this part of the job. I am a book lover and I would have liked to see the book going through the classic book channels, basically sell them through book shops. But that isn’t that easy. The market here in New Zealand is very small and the independent book distributor told me my books is too much of an art book, I should sell it through galleries.

Right, it is an art book, but it also appeals to people who are not into the serious art stuff. It is also a quirky story about real friends in the age of online social networks, anybody who isn’t online all the time, can easily relate to.

If I had written an novel, it would be so much easier, as then I could sell it electronically. But the images in my book really need to be printed, so that the dede puppets come to life.

It appeals to a much wider audience than just gallery visitors. So, the distribution remains still a little bit of a headache for me. I will sell it via an online book distributor and our own website, which I still have to update. I assume most of it will be word of mouth to start with. Thankfully, books are not like buns, they don’t get stale by the end of the day. It just means I will I have to put a lot of effort into the launch event and keep working on it all day, every day.